Cancer is an Asshole: $64.91 smackeroos.

In the shadow of The Oatmeal’s amazing fundraiser launched to tick off an appallingly wrongheaded lawyer, I am so very happy to announce this month’s donation to the American Cancer Society was for a whopping (by our standards) $64.91.

Not bad, considering that no one here is out one red cent. That’s 64.91 free smackeroos kicking cancer in the tenders.

Last month I promised an amazing milestone for this campaign, and I’m afraid my math was off (which will surprise no one who knows me). Stay tuned, though. It’s not far off.

You all are the best.

Amazon changed their gift card email notification design, so this doesn’t look as official as before. It is a shot of the gift card they sent me. Promise.

And the donation:

It's nice to share:

About Thea

I am a freelance writer, editor and digital content consultant based in Bethesda, MD.

And since Twitter can’t or won’t do anything about it, I am publishing this so that a minimum, Marc’s behavior will follow him for the rest of his life. I am hoping that this will be the first result when anyone, especially prospective employers, search the name “Marc Rattay.” To that end, please reblog and share this post.

This is just a small taste of what I have been subjected to for years:

And lest you think he keeps his harassment to Twitter, here he is harassing me on my Facebook wall:

(For some reason, Marc seems to think I was either disbarred or quit the law for Twitter. It’s preposterous. I have not been disbarred and I don’t even know what the last sentiment is supposed to mean.)

How was Marc Rattay Uncovered?

Marc Rattay was unmasked by Rebecca Schoenkopf (@commiegirl1), the editrix of Wonkette. Marc commented on Wonkette under the name “Marcellus Shale” without first signing out of his primary Disqus account. She was able to trace the IP address and found his Facebook page, under the name “Marcellus Shale.” (He has since changed his Facebook account so that the name reads “marcmarcmarcmarcmarc,” but here is a screenshot of his Facebook page before he changed it. The screenshot is a little screwy since I accidentally saved it as a PDF originally. But that’s neither here nor there.)

Marc made a similar mistake—commenting under his “respectable” name—while commenting at Balloon Juice, which is John Cole’s (aka @johngcole) blog, and at Bitter Empire–here and here–which is Lisa Needham’s (aka @snipy) blog.

Since the Marcellus Shale is a rock formation in western Pennsylvania, we surmised that it wasn’t his given name. So we set about trying to determine who “Marcellus Shale” is.

Marc runs a Twitter account under the name @m_shale and periodically rants about Rebecca, John, me, and others, bizarrely claiming that we deserve the harassment because we are “queer bashers” or “bigots” who hate bisexual people and conspired to attack him in some way. Marcellus Shale’s rants sound an awful lot like Assholster’s

Here is an example of Marc Rattay’s ranting under @M_Shale.

Here is another example of Marc Rattay’s ranting under @M_Shale.

(Notice his feeble attempts to claim that he only has one Twitter account.)

How do we know that Marcellus Shale (@M_Shale) is Assholster?

Aside from his tacit admissions in the screenshots posted above, three different journalists/bloggers (Rebecca Schoenkopf, Lisa Needham, and John Cole) have tied Assholster’s IP addresses to @M_Shale’s Disqus account.

How do we know that Marcellus Shale (@M_Shale) is Marc Rattay?

Marc Rattay has been clever about hiding his tracks, but not clever enough.

I took this screenshot of Marc Rattay’s Instagram account two months ago. Notice that it says “Marcellus Shale” underneath “nicepile,” his Instagram handle:

I took this screenshot of that same account today. It says “Marc” instead of “Marcellus Shale.” You’ll notice that the photo on the upper left matches the photo that Rebecca uncovered.

Both iterations of Marc’s Instagram account (“Marc” and “Marcellus Shale”) are linked to this vimeo account.

Here is a screenshot of Marc Rattay’s information via PeekYou. Notice his name is Marc Rattay. He lives in Edinboro, PA. And “On the web, Marc goes by the alias anicepile.”

So, in short, before Marc changed all of his social media accounts in order to divest himself of his “Marcellus Shale” identity, his Instagram account was under “Marcellus Shale,” which was linked to his vimeo account under the name “Marc Rattay.” His Facebook account was under the name “Marcellus Shale” until he changed it to “Marc Rattay.”

It’s him.

Twitter Does Not Enforce its Own Terms of Service.

Again, I wrote an article about Marc Rattay last August, months before I knew his real identity. That article explains all of Twitter’s failures to curb the sort of harassment that Marc Rattay metes out, i.e., creating serial accounts.

It is against Twitter’s terms of service to create serial accounts solely for the purpose of harassment. Nevertheless, Marc Rattay has created hundreds of accounts over the years in order to harass me and others. And since his unmasking, he shows no signs of stopping.

Compilation of Assholster’s Hate Tweets

This Storify contains tweets from Marc Rattay which I have compiled since he was unmasked as Assholster. It is evident that he does not plan to stop using Twitter to harass me and others. These tweets are from some of the accounts that he has created since the end of March. My article contains more tweets. And I will likely mass publish the hundreds of similar hateful tweet that I have saved.

It gives me no great pleasure to lay Marc Rattay’s behavior out for the world to see. It is an incredible waste of my time. I would much prefer that he leave me the hell alone. But for whatever reason, he refuses to do that despite my many many requests. Maybe someone who knows him will see this and talk to him about his behavior. But I am certainly not going to remain silent while being called ethnic slurs for years on end.

If what I have done here seems drastic to you, take the time to read what I wrote about Marc Rattay last year and then reconsider whether outing a troll who attempted for years to remain anonymous while harassing countless people and who has created literally hundreds of accounts to call me and others the most vile racist and misogynist names is a fair response or whether I’m supposed to allow him to continue to harass me and do nothing about it.

Since Twitter doesn’t seem to be able or willing to do anything about this endless harassment, the best I can hope for is that Marc Rattay, who is about 23 years old now (and has been harassing me since he was about 19), will find that no one on this earth will employ him. I want this tumblr post and the related Storify to be the first results when anyone searches the name “Marc Rattay.”

Marc: I will remove this post and I will remove the related Storify when you stop harassing me and when you tell me publicly on Twitter that you will stop harassing me. If you won’t do that and if you continue to create accounts dedicated to harassing me and others, I will continue to add your tweets to the Storify and I will continue sharing this story until the only thing you will ever be remembered for is this behavior. Do you want this following you around in ten years? Or do you want to grow up and stop acting like a child?